How to Adopt Without Ruining Your Family Day 1: An Introduction But you do see, for you note mischief and vexation, that you may take it into your hands; to you the helpless commits himself; you have been the helper of the fatherless. Psalm 10:14 One section in one lecture

How To Adopt Without Ruining Your Family Day 2: Tip #1 – Forget the Unicorns and Gumdrops There currently seems to be a romanticism with adoption. Today, adopting is portrayed as how real Christians respond to the Gospel. And if you don’t sign up–you don’t love Jesus enough. Often when I

How to Adopt Without Ruining Your Family Day 3: Tip #2 – You’d better ALL be all in   Jesus tells a parable to underscore the importance of counting the cost before embarking upon a building project (Luke 14:28-29). What a tragedy if the builder were to begin and not be

How to Adopt Without Ruining Your Family Day 4: Tip #3 – Be prepared when the Honeymoon is over Most children through adoption, arrive after the earliest stages of life. Consequently, there is a phenomenon known as The Honeymoon Period, which can last a week to even a year, depending on

How to Adopt Without Ruining Your Family Day 5: Tip #4 – Embrace the Challenges Together For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! Again, if two lie together, they keep

How to Adopt Without Ruining Your Family Day 6: Tip #5 – Expect Loneliness Invariably following an event, a woman will wait to speak with me. The details are different, but the sentiment is always the same. She is an adoptive mom or foster parent who feels so alone in her

How to Adopt Without Ruining Your Family Day 7: Tip #6 – Don’t Do it Alone Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety. Proverbs 11:14   Recently I took three of my children to a social for adoptive families. “Are you

How to Adopt Without Ruining Your Family Day 8: Tip #7 – Theology Matters God is sovereign. We find it across the writ of Scripture, but pointedly at the end of Job, where he speaks about his understanding of God’s ability to know all things. He states plainly his belief that

How to Adopt Without Ruining Your Family Day 9: Tip #8 – Recognize You Cannot Fix It The web is filled with testimonies from precious people of how adoption HAS INDEED RUINED THEIR FAMILIES. There are homes designated for kids who can no longer live within their forever families—for the good

How to Adopt Without Ruining Your Family Day 10: Tip #9 – Find Strength in the Lord Adoption can be a taxing endeavor. Much of the difficulty can result from disparaging needs prevalent in children coming out of difficult circumstances. My children have faced tragedy common, and not so common,

How to Adopt Without Ruining Your Family Day 11: Tip #10 – Trust Him to Guard What You Hold Dear If you’re asking me to promise the fairy tale ending you’ve always envisioned can and will become your reality, I cannot. That variety of hopefulness is not reasonable. Taking risks, like

How to Adopt Without Ruining Your Family Day 12: Don’t Miss the Blessing!   Confession: I am not a person who just loves to be a mom. Between you and me, I’m not even sure I like children. If God can take this task-oriented force-of-reckoning steam roller and transformer her into